
Juan Agudelo and Kevon Lambert net goals in the draw
SAN ANTONIO (May 4, 2024) – San Antonio FC took a point away from its contest with Oakland Roots after a 2-2 draw Saturday at Toyota Field.
After a scoreless first half, the visitors took the lead first with a 65th minute goal. San Antonio was quick to equalize, as Bura curled a ball in for Juan Agudelo to punch home in the 73rd minute. Kevon Lambert gave SAFC the lead just six minutes later, heading home a cross from Jorge Hernandez. A handball call in the penalty area allowed Oakland to convert in the 84th minute and even the score back up at 2-2.
Next Up
San Antonio FC enters the U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 at Indy Eleven on Wednesday, May 8. Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m. CT, and the match will be streamed online. If SAFC advances, it will host the winner of Houston Dynamo FC vs. Detroit City FC at Toyota Field in the Round of 16. This season is presented by Toyota.
Scoring Summary:
OAK: Miche-Naider Chery (Assisted by Trayvone Reid) 65’
SAFC: Juan Agudelo (Assisted by Bura) 73’
SAFC: Kevon Lambert (Assisted by Jorge Hernandez) 79’
OAK: Johnny Rodriguez (Penalty) 84’
Postgame Notes:
- SAFC moves to 3-2-4 on the season with 13 points, sitting in 5th place in the Western Conference.
- San Antonio remains undefeated against the Roots all-time, leading the series 3-0-3.
- Juan Agudelo and Kevon Lambert each scored their second goals for the club in the draw.
- SAFC finished the night with nine shots and five shots on target.
- San Antonio’s 14 goals in nine matches lead the Western Conference.
- Richard Windbichler makes his first career appearance for SAFC on the night.
- With his league-leading fifth assist of the season, Jorge Hernandez is two assists shy of tying San Antonio’s all-time record, now with 15 total in his club career.
- SAFC has out-possessed all of its opponents this season, leading Oakland with 61%.
- Eight of San Antonio’s 14 goals this season have come in the 75th minute or later.
Attendance: 7,437
SAFC Starting XI: Pablo Sisniega, Trova Boni, Kendall Burks, Kevon Lambert (captain), Shannon Gomez, Mohamed Omar, Bura, Lucas Silva (Kameron Lacey 26’), Jorge Hernandez, Machop Chol (Richard Windbichler 83’), Juan Agudelo
Substitutions Not Used: Eduardo Fernandez, Kendall McIntosh, Jose Mulato, Dalziel Ozuna, Gio Padilla
Disciplinary Summary:
SAFC: Yellow Card (Machop Chol) 30’
OAK: Yellow Card (Estgar Cruz) 43’
SAFC: Yellow Card (Mohamed Omar) 55’
OAK: Yellow Card (Trayvone Reid) 68’
OAK: Yellow Card (Baboucarr Njie) 76’
SAFC: Yellow Card (Kevon Lambert) 82’
SAFC: Yellow Card (Pablo Sisniega) 84’
Quotes:
Head Coach Alen Marcina
(On the draw…)
“It’s a positive result. I’m proud of the guys’ response from last week. I asked them to be to be vocal, loud through communication using our game model principles but also with their feet, and I believe strongly they did that tonight. We controlled the game, in my opinion, from start to finish and again out-possessed the opponent. We were in their half majority of the game. I believe we created more shots than our opponent, but we had seven shots from within the box, which was very, very good. Yeah, all in all positive. We’ll build from this moving forward.”
(On breaking down teams at Toyota Field…)
“Again, we have our plan, our strategy. It’s not easy. We try to put ourselves in good positions, and clearly we did. We don’t get seven shots inside their box if we didn’t put ourselves in good positions, so we did break them down with time. If we’re a little more clinical, maybe the result is a little bit different at the end, but it’s a work in progress.”
Midfielder Mohamed Omar
(On the draw…)
“Honestly, I thought the group did well to respond from last week’s performance. We’re really pleased with that. The game was sort of an up-and-down game, but I thought all throughout we imposed our style of play and we controlled the game, and I think there are a lot of positives you can take away from this game and use them to look forward to our midweek game in the Open Cup.”
(On the team’s communication growth…)
I think there was honestly a big improvement today. Coach has been honest about that, and we see that as a room for improvement. We’re not here to point fingers and say nobody’s doing this well enough and whatnot. We all want to be successful individually and as a team, so collectively, we see our communication as being an area that needs some improvement, and I think in a match like tonight, there was a lot of good communication on the field, a lot of constructive criticism, and I think it helped everybody. I was really, really pleased to see the way you guys are communicating for the full 90 minutes.”
Midfielder Kevon Lambert
(On the draw…)
“A little disappointed that we didn’t get the three points at the end of the day, but I thought I think the guys put out a really good performance. I think we deserved more from this game, the way we fought from the first minute to the last, so a little disappointed but really proud of the guys’ fight today.”
(On preparing for the midweek Open Cup match…)
“We know it’s gonna be tough knowing that the game is just a few days away, so I think we just focus on recovery right now and take all the positives from tonight and go into the game on Wednesday. If we take those positives and build on some of the things that we saw tonight going into that game, I think we should be fine.”